{"id":25342,"date":"2025-10-22T01:25:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/?post_type=blog&p=25342"},"modified":"2025-10-22T01:28:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:28:39","slug":"giving-god-control-of-my-failure","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving God Control of My Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my 20s, my friends were graduating from college with amazing degrees, getting high-paying jobs, marrying attractive people and starting picture-perfect families. I had no clue what I was doing with my life, and nothing was going according to plan.<\/p>\n

I was working part-time in retail, going through the motions in college, and I had yet to be in a single romantic relationship, let alone getting serious about marriage or starting a family. I felt like a failure<\/a> because I was still single and I hadn\u2019t seen the professional success I expected.<\/p>\n

I was harder on myself than anyone else was.<\/p>\n

But failure is often in the eyes of the beholder, and I was the beholder. In God\u2019s eyes, I wasn\u2019t the failure I thought I was.<\/p>\n

I just needed to give God control of my failure.<\/p>\n

Trying to reach life\u2019s milestones on schedule<\/h4>\n

The times when I felt like I was failing the worst were the times when I was trying hardest to compete or keep up with everyone else. And there was no shortage of people to compare myself to.<\/p>\n

People around me were making it through checkpoint after checkpoint without breaking a sweat. I, on the other hand, wasn\u2019t gaining any traction. I didn\u2019t reach any of the milestones they did when they did, so I was way behind in my mind. Sometimes I felt like I was running a different race.<\/p>\n

At first, I was lonely and depressed. When I wasn\u2019t working or studying, I was looking through Facebook and coveting the life I dreamed of having. I pitied myself because nobody else would.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re all succeeding where I\u2019m failing, so I must be doing something wrong, <\/em>I\u2019d think as I listened to Coldplay\u2019s \u201cFix You<\/a>\u201d on repeat for hours at a time.<\/p>\n

The depression turned into bitterness and jealousy. No one could share good news about his or her life without nauseating and annoying me. Keep it to yourself, would you?<\/em> I\u2019d think. Nobody cares about your perfect life.<\/em><\/p>\n

Truth is, I cared.<\/p>\n

I cared too much, in fact.<\/p>\n

But I shouldn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n

God makes His own plans<\/h4>\n

I felt like a failure because I wasn\u2019t meeting expectations and goals in life. My<\/em> goals and my <\/em>expectations.<\/p>\n

Turns out I was a failure for different reasons. I was putting my timeline for happiness ahead of God\u2019s, failing to love and appreciate the plan God had for me. Instead of praising God for His plan and finding success on the path He paved for my life, I treated His will like it wasn\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n

I wanted to be successful on my own terms, not His. I wanted worldly success instead of success in knowing Him and His will. But if God had wanted my life to look any differently, it would have.<\/p>\n

God had a better plan in place. And His plan for me didn\u2019t revolve around what everyone else was accomplishing. His plan was unique to my relationship with Him.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had to learn God\u2019s will one day at a time. I\u2019ve never had a clue or peek at what tomorrow will hold apart from the promises He\u2019s revealed in Scripture. That\u2019s why Proverbs 16:3 always resonates with me when I feel like my best laid plans aren\u2019t coming to fruition: \u201cCommit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding this verse, Pastor Tim Keller wrote,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wise accept that \u2018even if our human plans are subverted, we can recognize an even deeper plan at work in our lives,\u2019 namely, the all-wise and good will of God (Romans 8:28<\/a>).\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God\u2019s plan has the last word on success<\/h4>\n

Fortunately, God doesn\u2019t measure success and failure the same way we do.<\/p>\n

If God\u2019s plan for my life doesn\u2019t include getting married by a certain age, having children or being well respected as a leading professional, then how can I be a failure for not reaching those goals?<\/p>\n

Being successful or being a failure doesn\u2019t depend on where I am today as much as it depends on how I got here and how I move forward. Success depends on how I\u2019m looking to honor God through my present and future circumstances, not my ability to keep up with the crowd, hitting milestones \u201caccording to schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giving God control of my failure<\/h4>\n

Beyond God revealing His detailed plan for my life through my present circumstances, Scripture guides me toward success. Proverbs 3:3-4<\/a> says binding steadfast love around my neck and writing faithfulness on my heart is the key to finding \u201cfavor and good success in the sight of God and man.\u201d<\/p>\n

This implies that I only truly fail when I forget God\u2019s love and ignore His faithfulness in my life. I\u2019ve only been a failure when I\u2019ve put my plans, my hopes and my desires ahead of His plan and the success He wants for me.<\/p>\n

If your life isn\u2019t panning out as you expected, if you feel like a failure because you\u2019re not hitting life\u2019s milestones along with everyone else, or if you have a hard time finding contentment in your present circumstances, give God control of your failure.<\/p>\n

Until you let God determine what your failures and successes are, you\u2019ll never find the success you\u2019re not looking for.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2019 Marc Aker. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until you let God determine what your failures and successes are, you\u2019ll never find the success you\u2019re not looking for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":43971,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[10,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25342","blog","type-blog","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-growth","category-spiritual-growth"],"yoast_head":"\nGiving God Control of My Failure - Boundless<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If your life isn\u2019t going as you expected and you're having a hard time finding contentment, give God control of your failure.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Giving God Control of My Failure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If your life isn\u2019t panning out as you expected and you have a hard time finding contentment in your present circumstances, give God control of your failure.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Boundless\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/boundless.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-22T07:28:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/jose-ignacio-pompe-577140-unsplash-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"834\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Giving God Control of My Failure\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"If your life isn\u2019t panning out as you expected and you have a hard time finding contentment in your present circumstances, give God control of your failure.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/jose-ignacio-pompe-577140-unsplash-1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure\/\",\"name\":\"Giving God Control of My Failure - Boundless\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure-68c1a53b3bd37.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-22T07:25:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-22T07:28:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"If your life isn\u2019t going as you expected and you're having a hard time finding contentment, give God control of your failure.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure-68c1a53b3bd37.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure-68c1a53b3bd37.webp\",\"width\":1500,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"a woman giving God control of her failure, looking out at a sunset\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/giving-god-control-of-my-failure\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Blog Posts\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Giving God Control of My Failure\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/\",\"name\":\"Boundless\",\"description\":\"Find your place. 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